


Heartfelt

by belivaird_st



Category: Notes on a Scandal (2006), Tanner Hall (2009)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Crossover Pairings, F/F, Forbidden Love, Secret Relationship, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:27:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21677482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: A new teacher, Sheba Hart, arrives Tanner Hall and falls for class student Fernanda.
Relationships: Sheba Hart/Fernanda
Kudos: 73





	1. I

Victoria toe-kicks the ankle of Fern’s wool knee sock with blunt force that drives her to sit up from lying on top of her desk the moment their new teacher enters the classroom with spiral notebooks tucked underneath her arms. The students grow quiet as they stare at the newcomer: Caucasian female with blonde hair and blue eyes. She lays down her books on the corner of Mr. Middlewood’s desk before moving over towards the chalkboard to write out her name in neat, clear print:

_Mrs. Hart._

“Hello, class,” she greets them brightly, her voice wavers with confidence. “I’m going to be your new art teacher—Sheba Hart. I look forward meeting all of you. Any questions?”

A few hands shoot up. Fern sees Kate’s olive green painted fingernails wiggling frantically in the air. Mrs. Hart catches her excitement and picks up on it immediately.

“Yes. Your name, please?”

“I’m Kate. And I want to know if you prefer top or bottom?”

A few students are laughing with catcalls in between. Fern stares at Hart closing her eyes. Kate waits for the woman’s answer with a No. 2 pencil in her mouth. Hart looks at her and says,

“Never you mind. _Next question please...”_

A few more hands raise up, Sheba Hart tells about her family, her love for punk music, and dancing around at home.

When the class period is over, Mrs. Hart dismisses everyone. Students rise out from their desks and shuffle out the room. The new teacher leans up against Mr. Middlewood’s old desk, arms folded together. Her gray-blue eyes lock into Fern’s hazel ones that give off an instant spark of recognition. A connection. 

Fernanda feels her face grow warm. She moves quickly out the door.


	2. II

“The new teacher is gay,” Kate announces, slipping her pigtailed-knob head through the collar of her gym shirt; sliding both her arms through the sleeves. She pulls down and lets it hang to the waistband of her green shorts.

“Um, she’s married to her husband, if I remember correctly,” Lucasta points out, looking up from tying the laces of her sneakers on the wooden bench inside the girls’ locker room.

“I didn’t see a wedding ring on her finger. They could be divorced,” Victoria rubs body lotion on her skin before handing the bottle over to Fern. “Did you see a ring, Fernanda?”

“I wasn’t even looking.”

Fern takes the lotion to squeeze out a dollop of the Bath & Body Works cream into the palms of her hands before sealing the cap back shut. 

Kate removes her heart-shaped hoop earrings and thinks that Mrs. Hart goes both ways.

“She’s bisexual then. Most definitely.”

...

...

...

Today’s gym class consists a game of volleyball. The girls are paired up in teams: Kate & Victoria stand on one side of the net with Fern & Lu on the other.

A classmate on Kate & Victoria’s team tosses the ball and serves. Hitting the ball with her left hand, she makes it perfectly over the net. Two girls from the other team run after the flying ball. One bare arm connects its tethered rubber skin and knocks it back across the net again. 

Victoria yelps and ducks out of the way the moment Kate aggressively steps in front of her to block the ball from hitting her in the face. She slaps it down hard and makes it roll away. 

Their gym teacher blows out his whistle to give the other team a point. Fern and Lu celebrate by giving each other high-fives.

The game goes on for another fifteen minutes, leaving both teams a tie-breaker: 8-8. Kate serves the last round and makes the ball fly out of bounds.

“We win! We win!” all the six players squeal in Fern’s team.

Kate’s nostrils flare up. The hairline around her head glistens with sweat. She stands behind through the netting in her white tennis shoes, fuming.  


...

...

...

They all head for the showers. Kate’s anger dissolves once the cucumber melon body wash rinses her skin. She brings up Mrs. Hart for the second time.

“Do you think Mrs. H would want Brad Pitt to eat her out, or Meryl Streep’s character from The Devil Wears Prada?” she leans close in front of the bathroom mirrors between Fern and Victoria to reapply her mascara.

The other girls snicker in response with their eye wand brushes and tubes of lipsticks.

Victoria automatically says,

“Brad Pitt, for sure. Miranda Priestly wouldn’t give the woman the time of day, since she’s power hungry for fashion all the friggin’ time.”

“Yeah?” Kate grins.

“Yes, Brad,” Lu agrees. 

“I can’t believe we’re still talking about this.”  
Fern leans over a porcelain sink to wipe the corner parts of her eyes with a tissue before deciding to clean off the blue eyeshadow completely. Powder blue does not suite her at all no matter how much Kate insists on it.

...

...

...


	3. III

Victoria rests her chin on the palm of her hand during lunch period, staring admiringly at Peter shoving a crinkle french fry in his mouth two tables ahead inside the noisy, crowded dining hall. Lucasta rips open the tinfoil of her wild berry yogurt and gets some on her blazer. Fern eats her pasta salad, forking more of the corkscrew-shaped noodles mixed with basil and grape tomatoes. Kate chomps a carrot stick in half with her eyes fixed on Mrs. Hart talking to Mrs. Middlewood. The teachers stand by the wall on lunch duty. Mrs. Hart looks tall, and lanky, compared to the short, tiny Mrs. Middlewood.

“Peter will become the death of me, I swear it,” Victoria sighs, dramatically.

“Why don’t you ask him out already?” Lu peers up from cleaning herself with a napkin.

“Because he’s not in love with me. He’s in love with Fernanda.”

Fern makes a face and looks at Kate for backup, but her attention is somewhere else.

...

...

...

Art class.

Fern sits at her paint splattered table with Gwen, stumped over the blank page of her sketch pad. Not knowing what to draw, she holds up her forehead with her left hand, electric-blue chipped nails digging into the brown roots of her hairline. Everybody else seems to be full of inspiration. Mrs. Hart walks quietly around the room, peering down over students to observe their work. As soon as she moves past Fernanda and sees her with nothing, she takes a step backwards in her white pair of Keds and places a hand on the young woman’s shoulder.

“Don’t overthink it.”

Mrs. Hart’s touch somehow makes her move. Fern drops her hand and reaches for the charcoal pencil laying beside her spiraled sketch pad.

Near the end of the class period, Fern stands by the doorway, waiting for Lu, who’s in the middle of showing Mrs. Hart some of her comic book drawings by the teacher’s desk. Fern studies her fingers while eavesdropping the conversation:

_“Amazing skills you have, Lucasta. Very talented.”_

_“Thank you, Mrs. Hart. That means a lot.”_

_“Have you thought about putting a portfolio together?”_

_“Not really..”_

_“Well you should. It’s very simple. All you have to do...”_

Fern storms away no longer caring to hear the rest. She abandons Lucasta and decides that she can easily walk back to their dorm alone.

...

...

...


	4. IV

“Thanks for ditching me.”

Fern peers up from a rubber band ball she rolls in her hands to see Lucasta stepping into the room with a grumpy look on her face. She dumps her school bag on top of a desk chair. Fern doesn’t speak and sits up on her bed with two pillows laying underneath her. She watches Lu pull open a drawer and take out a sweatshirt hoodie to throw on.

“Mrs. Hart was wondering why you took off so fast?”

“Is she our new High Priestess now? That’s all we ever talk about,” Fern scowls, setting the rubber band ball aside.

Lucasta pulls her sweatshirt over her tummy before pulling out her hair that was tucked underneath.

“You don’t like Mrs. Hart?”

“I don’t like bringing her up every hour of the day. It’s annoying.”

“Well, I’m heading over to grab pizza at George’s,” Lucasta changes the subject. “See ya, later?”

“Yeah,” Fern replies.

...

...

...

Kate and Fernanda stand outside the back of the dormitories passing each other a roach. Victoria keeps lookout and stays indoors above them with a book in her hands. She pretends to read with her back leaning up against the window.

“It’s okay to cough! You are not holding in long enough!” Kate tells Fern on how she should smoke. “Mm,” she pinches the blunt between her lips. Inhaling, she coughs abruptly and holds out the brown rolled up paper.

“You are such a pot head,” Fern giggles, leaning over to take the paper from her. The rapid pounding sound of glass above their heads makes her drop the blunt onto the frost-covered ground.

“Shit!” Kate hollers.

“Oh, fuck! I’m sorry!” Fern apologizes.

They both peer up to see Victoria mouthing words; pointing for both of them to turn around.

Kate and Fern gaze over to find Mrs. Hart standing before them with her arms crossed; car keys dangling in one enclosed fist and a handbag resting on the side of her hip.

“Ladies,” she formally greets.

“H-hey,” Kate stammers, giving her a big, wide smile. “How’s it going?”

“You know smoking’s against the rules,” Mrs. Hart clicks her teeth. Fern looks guilty, feeling a burning tickle rise up her throat.

“Please don’t say anything, Mrs. Hart,” Kate pleads. “You're the coolest teacher we’ve had since Mr. Middlewood left! Don’t rat us out! Please, oh pleeease...”

Mrs. Hart picks up the burnt paper off the ground and chucks it into some shrubbery.

“Don’t do this again. Next time I’ll have to report the headmaster.”

Kate thanks her and bolts back inside.

Fern blinks up at Mrs. Hart.

“You’re better than that, Fernanda. Get back inside. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Fern can’t seem to say anything. She lowers her braided hair and starts moving her laced boots. She can feel Mrs. Hart’s eyes on her throughout the small trek back.


	5. V

“Gum, please.”

Mrs. Hart stands beside Fernanda during class with her palm out. She’s not upset, but determined like she’s been at Tanner Hall for a long time instead of it being her second day.

Fern, who thought she had been chewing with her mouth closed, peers up at the smirking art teacher before removing the wad of Trident gum out of her lips and places it in Hart’s hand. 

“Thank you. There’s no gum allowed in my classroom,” Mrs. Hart says quietly, discarding the gum into a trash bag.

Fern exchanges an odd look to Gwen, who simply shrugs back and continues dunking strips of newspaper into a Petri dish filled with paste. 

Near the end of the period, Mrs. Hart announces there’ll be a dance coming in two weeks. She passes around the neon blue flyers to her students while discussing the time and location. It starts at 7pm to 11pm in the gymnasium. No drugs or alcohol are permitted, of course.

“Let’s keep it a clean, friendly night,” she adds. She watches everyone scramble for the door once it’s time for classes to switch. Fernanda deliberately pushes her flyer off her table to let it drop to the floor. She eagerly follows Lucasta out of the art room with everybody else.

Mrs. Hart quickly runs after her with a fresh new copy.

“Fernanda? Hey! You don’t wanna lose this!” 

The teacher waves the dance flyer out towards the glaring girl with the pouty red lipstick and long ponytailed head. She tries giving her the paper.

“I’m not going to that,” Fern declares. 

“You’re not?” Lucasta pipes in.

The smile on Mrs. Hart’s face vanishes. She looks rather taken aback. 

“Everybody’s going, Fernanda...”

“I’m not ‘everybody’,” she replies flatly.

Both girls wait for Mrs. Hart’s reaction. She folds the flyer in half. 

“Well, um, alright then,” she clears her throat. “Enjoy the rest of your day...” she turns around and heads back to the art room.


	6. VI

The girls take a bus into town to go shopping for the upcoming dance. Kate arm hooks Fernanda inside a clothing store while Victoria checks out the accessories. Lucasta quietly slides a few hangers wondering what she’ll end up wearing.

“I’m not going to the dance,” Fern tells Kate, watching her hold up an aquamarine color top against her chest.

“Of course you are. What else will you be doing besides pouting in your room?” Kate carries the dressy shirt towards a mirror to check out how it looks on her. Fern scowls and glances over to see Victoria slinging a huge red handbag on one shoulder.

“If you’re not going to bother asking Peter to the dance, can I?” she sounds hopeful which only makes her more annoying.

“Go for it,” Fern replies, reaching to check out a price tag on a pair of jeans.

“Peter’s not into you,” Lucasta points out, watching Victoria try the handbag on the other arm.

“Once he sees my dress, he will,” Victoria smirks.

Everyone ends up buying at least one item. The girls decide to grab some lunch before catching the next bus that will take them back to the school. 

They head inside a sandwich shop and select a booth to sit at. Their waitress passes them each a menu and leaves them to decide what to order.

“Ooh yay! They have a vegetarian selection!” Victoria brightens up. 

_“I think I’ll have the chowder,”_ Kate uses a twang in her voice that gets both Lu and Fern to smile.

Their waitress comes back and receives their orders: A veggie burger for Victoria, corn chowder for Kate, macaroni & cheese for Fernanda, and a fish filet sandwich for Lucasta.

Kate drums her fingers loudly on the table as the waitress leaves with their menus. She overlaps her boot with Fern’s moccasin underneath the table.

 _“You are going to the dance!”_ she shouts.

Fern fiddles with a loose thread on the lapel of her fall jacket.

“We all know she’ll end up going,” Victoria clicks her tongue. “And you all will know I’ll be dancing the night away with Peter!”

Their food arrives. Kate has taken her boot off Fern’s moccasin under the table. She rips open a packet of salt crackers for her chowder. Victoria picks up her veggie burger and sniffs it. Fern stabs a fork into her steaming macaroni cheese and blows on it before eating.

Halfway through lunch the tiny bell rings above the shop glass door. Sheba Hart enters all rosy cheeked and breathless from the cold. A heavyset boy with Down’s syndrome swings her hand beside her. They greet the host at the podium before moving along to the other side of the diner for seating.

“Check it out, Mrs. H,” Kate declares, her eyes narrowing ahead. “And who’s the Pillsbury Dough Boy?”

The other girls turn over to look at their art teacher helping the large kid take off his jersey jacket. He’s making silly noises, but Mrs. Hart looks calm and patient. She has removed the jacket off the boy and gestures for him to sit down. 

“I want to say hi!” Victoria exclaims. 

“Why? We see her enough,” Fern snorts.

“Aww, I think that kid’s her son,” Lucasta observes, chewing in between. “He has Down’s syndrome.”

“Tough break,” Kate huffs.

Victoria puts her veggie burger back down on her plate and gets up with Fern looking on. 

“Victoria—get back here,” she growls.

“Don’t be such a wet blanket, Fernanda,” the soft British girl spoken. She starts making her way to the other side with a little bounce in her step.

Kate squeals in total delight with Fern and Lu watching. They see Victoria make a entrance by placing her hand on the vinyl cushion side where Mrs. Hart sits and starts talking with charm. Surprised to see one of her students, the teacher glows with happiness while the boy picks his ear. Victoria points over to the others and Sheba Hart waves at them excitedly.


End file.
